Within recent years, computers have automated the process of creating documents in offices. Despite the explosive growth in such computer use for creating documents using word processors, spreadsheets or graphics programs, however, studies have shown that over 95% of information in offices still remains in paper form. In the mid 1980's, the first commercial systems were introduced that addressed this problem. They allowed paper documents to be digitally scanned and turned into a digital image of that document. These documents could then be stored on magnetic disks, sent over computer networks, printed to create copies and indexed for future retrieval with a database. They are commonly called document imaging systems, and a summary of the same is presented in "Document Imaging Systems: Technology Overview," June 1990, Datapro Research."
The creation of scanned documents using these systems is a laborious process, and several standard procedures are in use. One method is to scan a stack of sheets or pages and convert them to digitized images. This set of image pages can then be viewed on a computer display, one at a time, in the same order in which they were scanned. By paging through this batch, associated pages of a single document can be visually identified and electronically "stapled" or assembled together with appropriate software. Index information is often entered at this time into a database so that the document can later be searched for and retrieved.
A second method involves scanning one document at a time and using an automatic document feeder (ADF) to signal the end of the document through an out-of-paper condition, or through manual operator data entry at a keyboard, or by action with a pointing device. The start of a document is established by initiating the scanning process. Once again, index information is often entered into a database at this step.
A third method involves scanning one page at a time and displaying each digitized page on a computer screen, and enabling the operator to enter notation through the keyboard or a pointing device specifying the beginning and end of the document.
Should further processing of the document image information be required as by others in the organization, and the computer scanning station is connected to a computer network, the operator may also route this document to another individual on the network for such further processing. This activity may be added as the last step to all three above-described procedures.
Underlying the present invention, is the discovery of a more economical method of creating and routing the digitally scanned documents by eliminating the need for an operator during the scanning and routing, such also allowing for more ad hoc use of a scanner by all individuals in an office connected to the network. Whereas existing document imaging systems, as previously outlined, are used in applications involving repetitive handling of similar types of documents, the present invention opens up the use of scanners for random use in an office.
Specifically, the method of the invention involves the use of a cover page which contains both machine and human-readable information, but with machine-readable code information containing the network address or identifier for the individual to whom the documents should be assigned or routed, as well as settings for the scanner and/or additional operations to be performed, such as OCR (optical character recognition), and the like--all without the need for operator control or intervention. Stacks of paper containing printed information (where the term "printed" is intended generically to embrace all of type, handwritten, hand drawn, photographic or other information placed on the paper or sheet) are placed into the ADF at random for scanning. The only requirement is that each logical set of pages (normally a document) needs to be preceded by such a cover page containing the particular machine-readable information above specified. If it is such a cover page, it automatically extracts the machine-readable information from the digitized page, recognizes it and records the information. When a new cover page is detected or when the scanner ADF is empty, then the previous page becomes the last page of the document and all pages of the document are electronically "stapled" into a single identifiable entity which can be routed as specified by the machine-readable code and stored. When a user at a desktop computer opens the user's electronic inbox, each document is accordingly individually identified. Cover pages per se have, of course, been used in facsimile (FAX) and prior scanning systems and the like, but not in the manner or with the particular critical information and response thereto of the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 190 5,129,016, issued Jul. 7, 1992, for example, a dover page is employed, including unique information for that particular document and involving the indexing of a document to a database. This is for the very different purpose of image registration for an image filing system. As such, accordingly, the system requires printing a specific cover page for each document and assuring such is used on the correct one. Such a technique, moreover, is prone to error and requires the additional steps of printing the cover pages, matching the unique cover page to a particular document, and then attaching the page. It also requires database information to be entered prior to the scanning process.
In many cases, furthermore, scanned documents are used for immediate communication, either by sending such out via computer FAX in an electronic mail system or to convert the document to editable text using an OCR process. There is, therefore, in such instances, no need to use an index page just for indexing the document as in said patent, because it will be used for a specific purpose and then deleted.
The present invention, with its quite different cover page purposes and operation, on the other hand, provides for great simplification of the scanning process for general office use by requiring only a single cover page for each user.